Dome9-Sponsored Survey: Cloud Security Automation is Key

New research from the Ponemon Institute, presented in a report sponsored by public and private cloud security management provider Dome9 Security, has found that a full 91 percent of organizations feel their sensitive data is vulnerable or at risk thanks to open cloud ports and firewalls.

And while Ponemon is shying away from an explicit endorsement, the message is clear: cloud security automation solutions like those provided by Dome9 are clutch when helping customers protect their mission-critical data.

The study, titled “Cloud Security: Managing Firewall Risks,” was conducted independently by the Ponemon Institute. Here’s what the press release has to say about the IT pros who took the survey:

The study surveyed 682 IT and IT security practitioners in the United States working in organizations that use hosted or cloud servers (dedicated or virtual private servers).  On average, respondents have more than 10 years IT or IT security experience, and 40 percent come from organizations with 5,000 employees or more in globally dispersed locations.

And here’s a laundry list of some key findings from the report:

• 52 percent of respondents rate their organizations’ overall management of cloud server security as fair (27 percent) and poor (25 percent); 21 percent responded “no comment.”
• 42 percent of respondents fear that they would not know if their organizations’ applications or data was compromised by a security exploit or data breach involving an open port on a cloud server.
• 79 percent of respondents believe that being able to efficiently manage security in the cloud is just as important as the security itself.
• 73 percent believe the cloud server firewall is the first place to stop attacks and prevent exploits.
• 72 percent said automation is important to cloud firewall policy management.
• 36 percent of respondents report that their organization cannot manage access or generate reports efficiently’ and 29 percent say they manage access through the cloud provider’s tools but cannot see the access reports.
• 78 percent of respondents say the most important feature to cloud server security is the ability to close ports automatically, so they don’t have to manually reconfigure their firewall.

TalkinCloud’s take: That 91 percent figure mentioned above, in addition to the 42 percent who wouldn’t even know if their information was compromised, indicates a clear and present need for a solution. And the latter half of that key findings list adds up to a larger picture of enterprises and organizations that have a need for cloud firewall reporting and automation but probably don’t know it.

“If you don’t understand the problem, it’s difficult to evaluate a solution,” said Dave Meizlik, Dome9’s VP of Marketing and Business Development, in a conversation with TalkinCloud.

And again, the Ponemon Institute is an independent research organization, and refrained from a specific endorsement of Dome9. But Dr. Larry Ponemon said Dome9 is in a good market position to help service providers help their customers with the very root of their cloud security issues.

It’s an interesting counterpoint to Symantec’s findings, whose customers said they thought the cloud boosted security. Where does the truth lie? Probably somewhere in the middle. And in the meanwhile, it’s the service provider’s job to match customer problem with vendor solution, no matter the larger market sentiment, so don’t lose perspective.